The British are Coming

If you owned a thirtysomething-year-old British sports car, what’s the longest trip you’d consider making in it? Ten miles? Fifty? Five hundred? How about 10,000 miles? That’s John Macartney’s goal. Macartney, a historian and enthusiast well known in Triumph circles, is laying plans for the Triumph Trans-America Charity Drive 2009, intending to raise $100,000 for each of three charities in the U.S., Britain and Canada. He plans to have two Triumphs make the transcontinental run: a left-hand-drive Stag, and a right-hand-drive 2000/2500 sedan. The cars would set out from the East Coast in mid-July 2009, and make diversions into Canada before arriving on the West Coast in October. Various activities to raise funds would take place along the way — stops at at least one chapter in each of the Vintage Triumph Register’s North American zones, for example, or opportunities to drive one of the cars a certain distance in exchange for a donation. The beneficiaries of the run would be three organizations that specialize in treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Details of the charity drive are evolving, so visit www.triumphtransamerica.org.uk for updates and further information.

(This post originally appeared in the November 1, 2007, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)